Caribbean Vegan Burritos with Cauliflower and Jicama

I love using cauliflower as a meat replacer. It’s one of my favorite hacks I’ve picked up in my journey of reducing my meat consumption. I don’t like to label my eating habits, but I do like to find creative ways to increase my fruit and vegetable consumption. Getting out of the habit of making meat the start of a dish can be hard. Breaking any habit is hard. But cauliflower makes getting more into a habit of treating my vegetables as the star a lot easier. Thanks cauliflower!

Cauliflower is low in calories, fat, and carbs. It’s high in Vitamin C and K, and pretty good in most of the B vitamins. It is low in protein however, to be a meat replacer. But that’s ok! Because we have black beans in this dish to kick up the protein power!

If you haven’t Googled what in the world a jicama is by now, congrats! Most people don’t know what it is or how to say it. It’s pronounced HE-KA-MA. It’s a tuberous root in the bean family. People commonly refer to it as the Mexican potato–but some people would tell you that’d be incorrect. While it’s a tuberous root (think sweet potato) in the bean family (think lima beans), it’s definitely not a potato. It’s brownish in color, and big and wide like a potato would be in appearance. It’s taste is nothing like a potato though. It’s crisp like an apple, with a taste similar to some sweet apples or a green bean. It’s sweet taste actually comes from a oligofructose inulin–which is a prebiotic! Jicama is low in calories, protein, fat, cholesterol, and sodium. It’s combination of dietary fiber and prebiotics make it a great choice for gut health!

This recipe is…

quick and easy,

vegan,

gut friendly,

low calorie,

protein packed,

and FULL OF FLAVOR!

This burrito pictured with cheese is obviously not vegan, but is vegetarian! Aaron wanted cheese on his. 🙂Let’s get to it! Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, line your baking sheet with foil and set aside.

I disassembled the head of cauliflower into large pieces, washed them, and then chopped away until they were into good sized florets. There’s no wrong way to do this! Transfer florets to baking sheet and cover in oil. I used grapeseed oil, because it’s what we had on hand (it’s important to switch up your oils!). Private Selection’s Adobo seasoning was perfect to sprinkle over the florets. The Adobo is a mix of chili powder, garlic powder, sea salt, and oregano. Super easy to make at home if you don’t have the blend. In the oven it went to cook for 20 minutes while I worked on the rest of the recipe!

You can get why people call jicama the Mexican potato because it kind of looks like a potato while cooking!I brought a large skillet to medium heat, then sprayed with my avocado oil spray to coat. The whole jicamas at my grocery store weren’t looking too hot, so I purchased jicama sticks instead. I usually try to avoid precut produce because of the higher markup, but I really wanted jicama! It made cooking quicker too, because I just had to quickly dice the sticks and throw them in the pan. I diced my red bell pepper and added to pan as well. Then, cooked until nice and sautéed, about 10 minutes. I had a bottle of Trader Joe’s Chili Lime seasoning, so I sprinkled the mixture with this. You could easily make this at home too, using chili powder and lime juice.

Once it was ready, I added the cooked brown rice and full can of rinsed and drained black beans to the pan mixture! Then, stirred and cooked for about 5 minutes. I grabbed two handfuls of cilantro from the fridge, chopped, and threw in the mixture. The fragrance was unreal!

The cauliflower was ready about this time, so I removed from the oven and let both items cool. It was finally time to assemble the burritos! Aaron wanted cheese in his (so vegetarian friendly), but I kept mine with just the mixture in the recipe. We both topped our burritos with Target’s Archer Farms pineapple and peach salsa. YUM. That was my favorite salsa in college. The only tortilla we had in the fridge were our low carb spinach and herb tortilla. We each had two burritos and then a side of the cauliflower on the side. I drenched everything in salsa because DUH. SO GOOD GUYS.

Wash cauliflower and break apart, discarding lettuce. Chop cauliflower into florets. Place on baking sheet with lined foil. Drizzle with oil of choice. Sprinkle with adobo seasoning (chili powder, garlic, oregano, and sea salt). Use hands to move cauliflower around to coat. Place in preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes.

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MEET SARA

Welcome to my corner of the internet. I'm Sara, a dietetic intern, graduate student, and crazy dog mom. I believe health exists at every size and budget--a common theme here on the blog! Want to know more? Check out my about tab!